Well, this is a tricky one, because equity has a couple of different meanings in English. It can mean:

a. Justice according to law or right.

b. Something that has the characteristic of being equitable, similar to the previous one, only this one referring more to being egalitarian, striving for equality, fairness

c. Stock owned in a corporation

d. Interest and/or ownership right in a property (similar in sense to the previous definition with stock)

My guess is you're referring to the last one. If my guess is right, then, in Spanish, this meaning can be translated to:

1. Participación en una propiedad

2. Patrimonio o capital

3. Derechos de propiedad

If the English phrase went something like "so people can obtain sweat equity by working a set number of hours by the institution....blah blah blah" I would translate it to "para que las personas puedan obtener derechos de propiedad por esfuerzo de una casa (o un hogar), trabajando un determinado número de horas que la institución establece...bla bla bla"

I wish the translation was a little bit more straightforward, but sometimes from English to Spansih you have to be more verbose (that's one of the reasons I really like the English language, hahaha)

Hope this helps, buena suerte!